Tucson Chapter Update
Posted Aug 05, 2025
Tucson Chapter SUMMER UPDATE
SAVE THE DATE – Monsoon Mixer!
Thursday September 11, 6:00 – 8:00 pm at Slow Body Brewery.
COME RECONNECT WITH YOUR NATIVE PLANT ROOTS! This is a great chance to see old friends and make new ones, all while enjoying a pleasant evening on the Slow Body Patio.
Beverages will be available from Slow Body.
Light refreshments provided (bring something to share if you wish).
Food truck available for more substantial fare.
· Preview of the upcoming Tucson Native Plant year
· PLANT SWAP – bring an extra plant or two, and swap with your friends
· Book for sale – we will have a limited number of copies of the new book by our friend and recent past president Jack Dash and Luke Takata, “The Southwest Native Plant Primer: 235 Plants for an Earth-Friendly Garden,” just out from Timber Press. See the review in the last Plant Press Arizona. Copies are $24.99 and we will take checks or cash (no credit cards).
There’s lots to see out there – join us this month!
August 10 Roadside Grasses
August 16 Summer Bloomers at CSP
August 17 Waterman Restoration
August 23 Native Grasses and street runoff water harvesting
August 30 Madera Canyon Plant Walk
Roadside Grass Field Trip
Sunday 10 August 2025, 7:30 am to 9:30 am
Meet on the north side of the Trader Joe’s Parking area on the SE corner of Magee/Oracle
Limit: 12 participants. RSVP to tucsonaznpstrips@gmail.com
Roadsides are unlikely but surprising places to find dozens of native (and non-native) grasses.Join John Scheuring on a driving grass tour of roadside basins brimming with various grass species. We will see 12-14 native grasses and 3 invasive grasses. This will be a great way to learn our common grasses by seeing them side-by-side in bloom.
In addition to grasses, we will walk through swathes of blooming Arizona Caltrop. A highlight of the tour will be Trailing Grama Grass (Bouteloua diversispicula), the newly discovered roadside species common in Sonora that had only been previously found in Arizona in one remote area of Ironwood Forest.
We will not park or walk on busy roadways but bring a reflective vest if you have one.
Summer Bloomer Plant Walk : Catalina State Park
Saturday 16 August, 2025, 7 am to 10 am
Meet : Drive straight ahead past the CSP entrance to the north side of the main parking lot. We will meet at the kiosk near the cactus tile mosaic wall
Bring : Plenty of water and wear a hat.
Limit: 15 participants. RSVP to tucsonaznpstrips@gmail.com
Join Arizona Native Plant Society members on a leisurely walk through Upland Desert and Riparian plant communities along the 3-mile Canyon Loop trail. We will see reliable summer bloomers like Arizona Caltrop, the Orange Flameflower, Desert Honeysuckle and various Four o’clock species. An early summer morning is a great time to learn about key desert plants; including trees, grasses, and cacti. Besides the plants we will learn about geology and critters great and small.
Summer Plant Walk : Waterman Restoration Site
Sunday 17 August, 2025, 7 am to 10 am
Directions : Turn off I-10 onto Avra Valley Rd (Exit 242), turn west and drive 19 miles straight ahead. Turn left after the brown Interpretive Sites sign and drive one mile, bearing left.
Bring : Plenty of water and wear a hat.
Limit: 15 participants, RSVP to tucsonaznpstrips@gmail.com
Join Arizona Native Plant Society conservation chairman John Scheuring on a stroll through this impressive desert restoration site 15 years after getting a monoculture of buffelgrass under control and installing passive water harvesting. The setting is a limestone foothill slope snuggled at the base of the Waterman Mountains on Ironwood Forest National Monument.
We will see many of 130 native species growing on the 18 acres with focus on the keystone species that serve to restore and maintain the desert. Trailing four o’clock, Desert Hibiscus, Prickly lettuce, Desert Fairy Duster and various Abutilon species will be in bloom. In addition we will see actively growing bio-crust composed of a mix of mosses and lichens. We will see transplanted saguaros rescued by TCSS as well as the successful use of discarded Christmas Trees to reduce erosion in channels and headcuts. We will walk slowly over uneven ground for about a mile.
For more information on the Waterman restoration project visit https://aznps.com/the-waterman-restoration-project/
Field Trip – Rainwater Harvesting and Native Plants
Saturday 23 August 2025, 730 am to 930 am
Meet on the northwest side of the Casa Del Rio parking lot at 1060 S. Pantano Road (one block north of 22nd Street, west side of Pantano)
Limit: 12 participants. RSVP to tucsonaznpstrips@gmail.com
Join Jennifer Patton and Ben Wilder of Wilder Landscape Architects on a tour of a recently constructed streetside stormwater harvesting project. This project, funded by the City of Tucson’s Storm to Shade program, features twenty-four species of container grown native plants including four species of grasses, and a seed mix consisting of an additional thirty-three native species (12 of those grasses). Learn how the City is putting roadway runoff to work on City-owned parcels to grow shade.
Wilder will provide an overview of the project, and provide identification tips for the following grasses that you will see:
· Hilaria mutica, tobosa grass, · Digitaria californica, Arizona cottontop, · Pappophorum vaginatum, whiplash pappus grass, · Sporobolus airoides, alkali sacaton
If we are lucky, there will also be successful germination of the numerous native plant species that were seeded, and we can have fun identifying those as well.
We will not park or walk on busy roadways but bring a reflective vest if you have one.
To learn more about Storm to Shade and see the projects that are underway, visit https://climateaction.tucsonaz.gov/pages/gsi
Madera Canyon Proctor Loop Nature Walk
Saturday, August 30, 8am to noon
Meet at Proctor Parking Area, Madera Canyon
Limit: 12 participants . RSVP to tucsonaznpstrips@gmail.com
Five plant communities come together on Madera Canyon’s Proctor Loop Trail. Join naturalist Doug Moore for an ANPS monsoon nature walk in the canyon. We’ll take a stroll around “the Loop” looking for monsoon plants/flowers, and also insects, birds/nests and other nature.
Park & meet at the Proctor Parking Area. We will walk the .75 mile Proctor Loop. The monsoon season has brought precipitation to the canyon; both summer plants and animals are active. This is an easy to moderate walk on mostly paved trail with some uneven sections and mild altitude loss/gain. (We may take the primitive trail up to the upper bridge below the White House Loop, if not too overgrown!)
Bring a bag lunch; the group can picnic at Proctor (or higher in canyon if too warm) after the walk.To participate, you MUST be able to walk/stand for several hours. There are benches along the trail at intervals.
Please wear comfortable walking/hiking shoes. Bring water, binocs, hand lens, sun hat, & insect repellent; optional: camera, walking stick
Don’t wait to sign up as space is limited; walks often fill up fast!
Cautions:
1) Chiggers occur in the grassy habitat around/above Proctor. Bring insect repellent or powdered sulfur, consider wearing long pants and stay on the main trail as much as possible.
2) Monsoon weather can change quickly; safety is our utmost priority! If thunderstorms develop or lightening becomes possible, we will stop the walk and return to the parking area as quickly as possible.
3) There can be lots of wildlife on the road to the canyon in the morning. Please drive carefully and watch for wildlife! Enjoy these special animals and take care not to run them over!
